One of the most dramatic wrecks I have had was on the Bloodvein River in Canada on the first trip we took. There was a ledge across the river with a chute and the end of a left turn, and then a straight run through a series of rocks.
It was at the end of the day. We were tired and there wasn’t an easy place to exit the river so we scouted it from our boats.
Dana ran it first and eddied out waiting for us to follow him. I drifted fairly close to the left side of the chute waiting for Dana to clear, so we approached it at an angle.
I was planning to swing the back of the tandem vertical to the run when I heard Mary yell “We are missing it.” I was confident that we would make it and I stroked hard forcing the boat forward.
I still don’t know what happened. I remember the boat being on a 75-degree angle seeing Mary high above my head clutching the gunnels. The boat seemed to twist in the air. I would like to think that I bailed out but I probably was flung from the canoe, as it turned over and landed upside down with Mary still in the bow. I surfaced seeing Dana retrieving Mary and her paddle and going to the shore. I still had my paddle and swam to the upside-down canoe climbed aboard and struggled to get it ashore. Dana was starting a fire to heat some tea and we got Mary’s nosebleed stopped. She got dry clothes on and finally stopped shivering. By the time we were on the river it had cost us an hour.
Lesson learned: Never run a rapid with out scouting it first
We were extremely cautious the rest of the day and lined our boats through some rapids that could have been run.
Funniest Wreck
The funniest wreck was on the Bloodvein. It was a long rock garden and as we stood on the bank scouting it I told Dana “I don’t think we can make it through but it is not deep and very fast so I don’t think any damage will be done to the Bear”
It was a long portage with a difficult take-out so we decided to run it. In retrospect we should have waded the canoes through.
We started to paddle when we immediately hit a rock and spun around going backwards down the rapids. I spun around in the seat and tried to steer the boat but Mary and I were facing opposite directions in the canoe
“You go first.” I saw a rock in front of us but could do nothing, so we spun around again. I turned around in the seat and we were again in the correct paddling position but things were moving fast, even before I could get a paddle in the water we were spun around again. I turned around in the seat our backs were once again to each other
We again hit and were spun around once again.
We were now in the correct position bow and stern but we could not make the last turn and were pushed up to a log jam. I jumped out of the canoe and angrily started to drag the canoe over the jam.
The water was extremely cold and I heard Dana call “Wait I will help you”. I looked up saw him maneuvering his solo through the rocks. Once again I yanked the boat trying to get it over the small pile of logs when I felt a pain in my thigh. I had torn a groin muscle. Dana made the run, but was also forced right next to me. We got the boats over the log jam and camped early because of the pain I was feeling. I couldn’t walk but had to crawl to camp and let them set up camp.
We had to lay over for a day while I rested the leg. One year later I was still having a problem with it.